TL;DR:

• That exciting new offer might actually be a $100K+ pay cut once you factor in unvested RSUs.
• By Year 3–4, refresher grants stack up — leaving usually means forfeiting 1.5–2 years of income.
• Run the numbers on your real "walking away number" before you even reply to a recruiter.

The offer that looks too good

You get the message:

"Hey, love your background. We're building something huge.
Base: +30%. Equity: 'competitive.' Interested?"

It's flattering. It's more money on paper. It's also the exact moment most people stop thinking clearly.

You pull up the new comp numbers. You compare them to your original offer from your current company:

• Base was $150K, new base is $195K
• RSU grant was $400K over 4 years, new grant says $500K
• The recruiter keeps saying "total comp closer to $300K+"

So in your head, it's:

"More cash now, bigger equity number, company seems less chaotic. Why would I not take this?"

Because that's not actually the trade you're making.

You're not comparing "old offer vs new offer."

You're comparing "leave now and forfeit unvested stock vs stay and let it all vest."

The refresher trap

Most people think of equity like a single 4-year block:

• Year 1: 25%
• Year 2: 25%
• Year 3: 25%
• Year 4: 25%

Nice and clean. Reality is messier.

By the time you're a few years in, you usually have:

• The original grant still vesting
• A refresher (or two) already granted
• Maybe a promotion grant on top of that

They all overlap.

So by Year 3–4, your vesting schedule looks more like this:

• 3–4 different grants vesting every quarter
• First one nearing the end, new ones just getting started
• Total vest each quarter way higher than in Year 1

That's where the "golden handcuffs" kick in.

Leaving isn't just "walking away from what's left of the first grant." It can be:

Walking away from 1.5–2 years of income in stock.

A simple example

Say you're sitting on this stack:

• Original grant: $400K over 4 years
• Year 3 refresher: $200K over 4 years
• You're midway through Year 3

What's unvested?

• Original grant: 50% left ($200K)
• Refresher: 75% left ($150K)

Total unvested: $350K.

Even if the stock goes nowhere and you ignore taxes for a second, leaving now is like throwing away:

$350K over the next ~2 years

After tax, maybe that's closer to $200–220K in your pocket.

Compare that to the shiny new offer. If the "raise" is +$30–40K/year but you're burning $200K in equity to take it, that's not a raise. That's a pay cut spread over a couple of years.

The new job doesn't just have to beat your original offer. It has to beat your current trajectory, including unvested equity.

How to calculate your real "walking away number"

Grab a notebook, a spreadsheet, or Tarqeq. This is the logic.

1. List every unvested grant

For each grant:

• Grant date
• Total shares or dollar value at grant
• Vesting schedule (cliff + cadence)
• Current stock price

Ignore expired stuff. Focus on anything still vesting.

2. Look at the next 24 months

Don't just look at the next quarter.

List out every vest over the next 2 years:

• Date
• Shares vesting
• Shares × current price = pre-tax value

Add it all up. That's your "stay" number for the next 24 months.

Why 2 years? New grants at the new job usually have:

• A 1-year cliff
• Quarterly vesting after that

So realistically, it takes about 2 years for a new grant to start feeling meaningful.

3. Convert to after-tax dollars

Your RSUs are treated like salary when they vest.

A $100K vest might be more like $60–70K after federal + state + FICA. The exact number depends on your income and where you live, but the main point is:

Do not compare pre-tax stock to pre-tax salary.

Convert both to after-tax numbers. (I built Tarqeq to do this automatically because doing it by hand is annoying.)

4. Compare staying vs leaving

Now lay it out:

• Stay 24 months:
  • Current salary (after tax)
  • • Estimated after-tax value of all vests
• Leave now:
  • New salary (after tax)
  • • New equity (realistically very little in first 1–2 years because of cliffs)

The gap between those two paths is your walking away cost.

If staying is $220K better over two years and the new job feels moderately better... that's still a big price tag for "moderately better."

When it still makes sense to leave

Sometimes you should walk anyway:

• The company is clearly dying
• You're completely burnt out
• The new role massively levels you up (career-wise, not just cash-wise)
• The new equity package is obviously better and you believe in it

But at least you're doing it with eyes open.

Knowing "I'm basically paying $150K to get out of here" doesn't mean you shouldn't go. It just means you're making the trade on purpose instead of accidentally lighting six figures on fire.

How I actually track this (and why I built Tarqeq)

I got tired of doing this math in janky spreadsheets and on napkins.

In Tarqeq, I track:

• Every grant and vest date in one place
• What's already vested vs what's left
• What I'd be leaving behind if I quit now vs 6, 12, 18 months from now
• All of it shown in after-tax dollars so I'm not lying to myself

Before you even open a recruiter's email, you should know roughly:

"If I leave this quarter, I'm walking away from about $X after tax."

You don't need a perfect number. You need a good number.

See your unvested equity breakdown →

References

• IRS Topic 427 — Stock options and RSU taxation
• IRS Publication 525 — Taxable and nontaxable income (equity compensation)
• IRS Topic 751 — Social Security and Medicare withholding rates